Tuesday appeared to be a very chaotic day on Capitol Hill as House Republicans delayed a key vote on a short-term measure to fund the government ahead of a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline — and then, hours later, a handful of hardline conservatives broke with party leadership to sink a procedural vote on a Pentagon funding bill, dealing a major blow to party leadership and Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
With just days left to go to avert a shutdown, Republicans appear to be struggling to find consensus within their ranks — with plenty of finger-pointing to go around.
The five conservative House Republicans — Reps. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., and Ken Buck, R-Colo. — joined Democrats to vote down a rule on the defense appropriations bill, which prevents lawmakers from debating and voting on the bill.
Such votes are typically mundane affairs, with the “rule” usually easy passing along party lines. But Tuesday’s vote marks the second time this year such a vote has failed; in June, a group of conservatives staged a rebellion on the House floor and tanked a similar vote in protest of the deal McCarthy struck with President Joe Biden to raise the debt limit. June’s vote marked the first time a rule vote was defeated on the House floor since 2002.
The $826 billion defense bill is loaded with provisions aimed at curtailing transgender medical care, the Pentagon’s abortion policy, diversity efforts and other programs, leading to Democratic opposition.
Tuesday’s vote sends a similar message of displeasure to McCarthy: They will not vote for any funding bills until their demands are met.
Frustrated Republican lawmakers took to the Capitol steps after the failed defense bill vote to publicly shame their colleagues.
“What we just witnessed was a conservative Republican Party, frankly, look and behave like the minority instead of the majority,” said California Rep. Mike Garcia, speaking with a group of Republican veterans in Congress . “What we just saw were five individuals vote against the rule to bring to the floor for a vote the most conservative DoD bill in modern history.”
“I am disappointed. I am pissed off,” Garcia said, adding: “Our inability to bring this package to a floor vote because of these five individuals who decided to put their personal agendas ahead of the basic requirements of our troops is extremely upsetting to us.”
“I think as a conference, we need to lock ourselves in a big room and not come out until we figured out our path forward. That's leadership's responsibility to do that,” said Garcia. “We shouldn't leave and we shouldn’t torpedo votes like this until we have those conversations as a group.”
Meanwhile, time is running out before federal funding expires at the end of the month. During shutdowns, most federal workers are furloughed and non-essential functions of the government are disrupted, including the processing of passport applications, food safety inspections, IRS operations and trash pickup at national parks.
House Republicans put forth a proposal this week aimed at averting a shutdown, a short-term bill that would fund the government through Oct. 31 while cutting federal spending by 1% from current levels.
The bill, known as a continuing resolution, would spare the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments from cuts but slash the budgets of other government agencies by 8%. It leaves flexibility for disaster relief. The proposal also includes a border security bill passed by the Republican-led House in May that would revive a number of Trump-era policies, including border wall construction and asylum restrictions. The spending bill also would block much funding related to migrants, including for transporting them into the country’s interior. It stipulates that migrants awaiting asylum hearings must be detained or transferred to a safe third country.
It faces long odds in the Democratic-controlled Senate, whose leader called it “slapdash, reckless, and cruel” in a post on social media on Tuesday.
“We are days away from another MAGA government shutdown,” wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Avoiding one will require the House GOP to quickly accept a bipartisan solution. Instead they released an extremist CR bill that would cause immense harm to the American people. It is a non-starter in the Senate.”
While it’s hard to imagine Democrats in the Senate supporting the bill, and President Biden signing it into law, having the majority of the House back the bill could give McCarthy greater leverage in negotiations.
But more than a dozen House Republicans have indicated they would not support it, including far-right lawmakers like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz — who argues the bill is “a betrayal to Republicans” because it does not strip funding to aid Ukraine in its war against Russia or for special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into former President Donald Trump — and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wrote on social media, “I’m a NO. No money for Ukraine, COVID, or weaponized Gov. America First!”
The Republicans who negotiated the deal are urging their colleagues to reconsider.
“This is the most conservative CR ever put forward,” said Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice on Tuesday after a Republican conference meeting. “And for some of my colleagues to walk away from continuing to fund the government, from securing the border, from cutting spending, and for protecting our vets, is a mistake.”
And it doesn’t appear that Democrats are in any rush to come to Republicans’ rescue.
“If they want a clean CR, we are happy to do that,” said California Rep. Ted Lieu. “But you can't also jam into a CR all this random stuff if they simply can't get their act together to do the appropriation bills on time.”
“What we just saw were the chickens coming home to roost,” California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove told Spectrum News on Tuesday after the defense vote failed. “The speaker doesn't even have the votes to pass his own shameless bills, and we are just days away from a government shutdown that no one in this country can afford to have.”
Spectrum News' Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.